Does she actually, seriously think she can just date Koto now and everything will be okay?

My guess is that she knows that “now” is still currently off the table. But Erika has always been playing a very long game in regard to her feelings for Koto—she turned her down when Koto brought up the possibility of the two of them dating after Aya had gone missing, because she knew Koto needed to somehow resolve her feelings about Aya first.

From Erika’s point of view, Koto trying and apparently failing with Aya is a necessary precondition for the two of them getting together, however long it might take for that to happen.

(I think that Koto is actually too deeply damaged for a relationship with Erika to ever be feasible, but that’s my read of Erika’s thinking.)

And it's not just that Koto is still in love with Aya but that her thoughts are still dominated by the trauma of Aya's disappearance, even after her return. Erika was hoping that the reversal of the trauma trigger would reverse the trauma and Koto would come to her senses finally, realize she isn't actually interested in dating a child, and be open to Erika at long last. Koto instead has regressed, or seemingly maybe WANTS to regress? And is farther from both Aya and Erika than ever :( Even having Aya in her life now didn't overcome the pain of the seven years of absence that Koto wants to erase. Aya returning has, if anything, reopened old wounds and made Koto worse, at least so far.

last edited at Nov 4, 2024 9:57PM

That sure was a hell of a swerve, I genuinely kinda felt like we'd just take the spirited away event as a given and the story is just about living with the consequences. A magical realism sort of plot. And well I guess that's still possible lol, just because it's happened to someone else doesn't mean they know how or why any more than Aya does.

RIP Koto, unchanging as a bozo
RIP Erika, her faith in a bozo was misplaced
Erika's been obsessively worrying about the how and when of her hooking up with Koto, trying to get the timing right and the path there so that Koto can love her back and nobody gets hurt in the process, that she's lost sight of if there's anything here actually possible for her. If this clown can ever actually be rehabilitated into a proper girlfriend, let alone doing it without stepping on anyone's toes. I'll give Erika credit in that she's probably more likely to have this realization before Koto has her realization that "oh this shit with Aya is kinda fucked I need to reevaluate my feelings here". But at the moment both are still stuck in the ruts they've worn with their respective unrequited loves.
I wonder if Aya has any idea about Erika's feelings for Koto. She hasn't indicated that she does, but especially back when they were kids I can't imagine Erika was great at hiding it.

Wait, didn’t we think Freckle-chan was going to invite Koga to the prom?

I was expecting something exactly like this, A meet&greet with her record co dad. But I was expecting Aya to misunderstand and think it was a prom invite and be super down about it.

Although I try to stay out of the plot-prediction business*, I find it hard to believe that the story is going the “no prom at all” route after going to the trouble of setting it up. Maybe a “leave the producer’s party early and hit the prom together” twist.

*Because the pay is so low even when you get it completely right.

I'm sure, at least, that Aya is lying about having a family thing. She's trying to minimize the prom because she knows it's a good opportunity for Koga, but she's heartbroken on the inside. Aya's gonna be miserable about it, and Koga's going to find out or otherwise pick up on that and there'll be some kind of grand gesture to make up for it.

I agree with this, just last chapter Aya explicitly said to Narita "I'm going, I'm going, I'm definitely going" when she learned about the prom. Unfortunately for the romance development Ata pretty consistently chooses Mitsuki making music over progressing their relationship, and this seems to be another example of that. The possibility on actual progress remains solely in Mitsuki's hands because Aya doesn't seem willing to ask her for priority.

Japan is a land full of natural disasters so they learned that if you want to keep everyone safe, you have to not fall out of line and act in the interest of the group. That means don't act selfish, don't bother people expressing your concerns, suck it up so the harmony won't get disturbed. There's a reason why so much crime doesn't get reported, mainly sexual harrasment. They learn to keep their mouth shut and act the way that's expecting of them.

If you don't follow the social norm and attract attention, chances are high you get bullied and higher ups won't like you. Always listin to the teacher, what you seniors says goes, even if they are incompetent and just a year older. Japan has a highly oppressive society where appearances are more important than your happiness as an individual.

I love how the monster mentioned the backpack. I kid you not, students have to carry all their books no matter how heavy, they are not allowed to leave some at school like we did with lockers. People were against the idea since it's good for character building and they also had to do it, so those kids must do the same. Its a crazy mentality and young people are fed up with it. But they can't do much against japans huge elderly population and politicians catering to them to get elected.

It's no wonder japanese media is the most expressive and extreme. It's crazy how diverse japanese entertainment is, not to mention all the insane things you can do in the sex industry. People need ways to cope with the extreme pressure and escape their harsh reality.

Tldr what the monster defines as normal is to just act like a good productive sheep for a healthy society, or you will be shunned.

Lmao this is all true about so many more countries than Japan. Even the thing about lockers, they took lockers away in most schools in the US after Columbine and they continue to shrink with every infamous school shooting. The main difference here being that they ALSO in a lot of places took away the backpacks, or mandated transparent ones, or installed metal detectors and police searches to check them.

Nanase's eating a whole 8 inch hoagie, Yuki's drinking a whole quart of milk, and Fuuko has an endless box of cherries that seems to actually grow more cherries as she eats rather than empty. These girls sure have interesting lunches.

Well, I was expecting Masaki to be weird but not to be borderline insane. Why Michi keeps attracting the crazies?

This is a hilarious take given how much of a weirdo Michi herself is. Like jeez have you not seen our protagonist? And how she spends all day every day at school obsessively watching something nobody else in the room can see? Did you forget the time only a couple chapters back where she was found passed out and covered in blood at the school fair?

I didn't really like this, sadly. Yukino feels like she was written as an older teenager who maybe went to a different school, and the story would have an "age gap" of like 16 to 18. That would make much more sense with the characterization we got, where somehow this grown ass adult who's had plenty of relationships is still just as dumb as a child when it comes to understanding what she wants in relationships. Why give her all that experience if it hasn't impacted her at all? She end up feeling quite artificial as a result, her pieces didn't fit together enough to make them feel like "this character feels a thing", so they instead fall back to "the author made this character say this line". This makes it very difficult to give a shit about her or her arc or be satisfied with the happily ever after where she's practically played by a different actor.

vary nice
next chapter wen

i realized reading texts is way better than consuming images, i advise reading the novel, or you will keep assuming things without seeing how their internal monologues dont keep up with their actions cuz of what

i like pictures i think they're cool and neat and awesome imo but that's just me

but words are also cool too

Mhm. Words good but pictures nice too. Agreed!

I wonder if the previous comment was recommending the WN/LN for this work specifically instead of in general.

Shuukura's manga seems to be cutting more internal monologue than most text to manga adaptations. Just off the top of my head, Otherside Picnic and AdaShima are two examples where the manga adaptation seem to lose less internal monologue.
And the internal monologue is arguably more important to Shuukura's story than it is in those two works.

I'm certainly still enjoying this manga though, massive Shuukura fan that I am.

The internal monologues definitely aren't less important with Otherside Picnic, as we see in the anime version when they're gone the effect of basically everything dies. The very first encounter with the supernatural goes from "what the hell is that thi- oh god looking at it and perceiving it let's it into my head I'm being parasitized by this thing I cannot understand and yet I still think I should keep looking at it" in the novel and manga, to "that goo monster over there is causing the screen to glitch out. Imma throw a rock at it and make it stop:)" in the anime. And that's before we get to how the anime removing the internal monologues also removed basically all the homosexuality, to the point where a lot of anime viewers had no idea they were watching a yuri.
I'd say this is a series that could really use an adaptation like Otherside Picnic's manga, as both series are pretty much dead even imo in how badly they suffer if you get outside the protagonists' heads. This manga is not as bad as the Otherside Picnic anime, but it's still kinda suffering. I also found the characters confusing and kinda difficult to empathize with before checking out the great WN translation.

last edited at Nov 1, 2024 5:51AM

Ah, I don't get it.
Normally a girl as socially unhinged as that is either in her mid to late 20s or would not just kiss someone for no particular reason for fear of ostracization.

Anime and manga, am I right?

I knew a girl like this in highschool, except she was straight. Some people are just very impulsive and uninhibited. Presumably she's settled down or died by now though, can't imagine a decade later she's still acting like that. But I'd be happy for her if she was I guess lol

What kind of girl would like to be kissed by another girl? Hi, yes, it's me, I'm that kind.

I wonder when we'll stop seeing comics where the girls don't even know lesbians exist?

When heteronormativity is finally dead and buried. Hopefully that'll happen one day...

I absolutely wouldn't trade the serialization for anything, it's so good imo. This is a story about a gay journey, not just the gay destination, so you just have to appreciate the ups and downs of the gay road

Nobody knows how the manga might end but we know it certainly had a polyamorous beginning, with Mei being in love with six different people at the same time. I think that indicates a real possibility! Karin feels like she's particularly pushing for poly too, which is in line with her free love kisses for all character.

Are you like the person who made that translation or something because you're being weirdly aggro about this for absolutely no good reason. Why the hell do you care that a couple random strangers don't like the thing you like.

The queen seems amused more by the developing relationship/chemistry between the two useless lesbians than anything else which is really interesting to me

Hey c'mon that's not fair. Only one of them is a useless lesbian, the other is a powerless lesbian!

I actually really liked this (except the "oops I thought I had two more pages to wrap this up" brick wall of an ending). A story about two people with "unforgivable" sins realizing that once that love is worth more than hating someone for their past even after they've changed and clearly demonstrated regret. A manga about restorative justice, one might argue :P
I was definitely not expecting to see near universal revile for the first few pages of this thread, especially people calling it pornographic (they don't even take off their clothes?? It's obviously NSFW but those terms are not synonymous) or a worse depiction of rape than average. It might be the influence of reading toxic Korean GL like Best Served Cold recently (the comic with the number one all time most toxic sapphic relationship I've ever seen in it's post-ending side stories) but this really feels like a subdued, responsible portrayal to me lol

I can't fathom folks showing up to a new work from one of vanishingly few mangaka (or published authors in general) repping committed aro/ace relationships to say "gosh, I hope this one is more like everything else I read!"

I understand what you're saying and why, and in no way am I trying to dismiss or belittle your point, but I'd like to offer a perspective on this. To me, one of the reasons Usui Shio's works have not been "like everything else I read", is a lot about the way they present the story, the way they construct and develop the characters and the plotline and the depth in them, and other nuances in their style and writing, and I really want to see these qualities that I adored in both "Donuts" and in "Marriage" (this is a terrible shortening lol) in a more, for lack of a better term, "traditional" romance story. In other words, I'll share that the reason Donuts, in particular, resonated so deeply with me wasn't the (a)romantic aspect of it, if that makes any sense lol. Like, different people are looking for different things, and there's nothing wrong with that.

As another example, I feel similarly about Fukaumi Kon - "Haru and Midori" is one of my favorite manga of all time, and a large part of it was the author's character-building and the atmosphere/vibe/pacing. Seeing those aspects that I really, really like in their writing play out in "A Love Yet to Bloom" which has a wholly different flavor has been an absolute joy.

Also, I saw a few comments that mentioned it'd be boring or disappointing if despite everything, Asako "overcomes" her being ace, and again I understand what they mean, but to me, it isn't "overcoming", since Asako, in particular, is genuinely going through a pretty serious introspective process, which would be the shaping of her character, and regardless of what she realizes she is at the end of it, so long as the execution is good enough, and I have a lot of trust in the author, it'll feel appropriate. I really do hope whoever reads this gets what I'm saying here lol.

In any case, about chapter 5 itself, I really like how things are going. I find that the questions Asako asks herself are genuinely interesting and really important and I'm looking forward to seeing her making sense of her own world. Also big fan of the two's dynamic, it feels a lot more fluid and organic than in many other stories I've read. I hope that Asako has a chance to talk to her sister at some point if nothing else because it's kinda weird to me that she'd cut her off just because she "ran away" with someone.

I totally agree with this. Portraying characters as functionally ace isn't actually remotely rare, even beyond all the G rated Yuri out there, there's a lot of stories about women written by people who have a mindset that either women are inherently functionally asexual, or that there's something fundamentally wrong or exploitative or uncomfortable depicting women as being sexual (I still judge the author of She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat knowing their previous work before that chaste as hell manga was an extremely horny BL. That BL was good imo but the gender gap is just so ridiculously stereotypical). You can search "pure yuri" and find an endless trove of functionally ace yuri manga.
The thing that made Doughnuts special for me is that the asexuality was actually named, making it a very deliberate exploration of that rather than an implicit or embarrassed or accidental portrayal. That manga has a care and delicacy in portraying the character's feelings as an actual identity rather than just the circumstances, and THAT is rare and special imo. This is why I'm also liking "Our Love is Disgusting" by the same author. It's not about What they're portraying that makes them special imo, it's the How.

(PS the author of She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat declared the characters to be demi on twitter this year iirc, but that kinda feels like a 'dumbledore was gay' moment to me given that they said it so late and in a place so abstracted from the actual text of the manga. Especially since there's an explicitly asexual lesbian character in the manga already serving as a queer senpai to the MCs and so there's no excuse for this demi identity to not be in the text itself)

They built this guy up for so long, almost the whole run of the series iirc, and he's just some random crazy asshole without anything interesting about him? That's a very strange choice. Shame the guy was such a nothing antagonist that Ren Xing couldn't even focus on him and had to direct her anger at the victim of the stalker instead of the guy with the knife who stabbed her girlfriend (also a very strange choice)

What a chaotic chapter, really conveys how confused and swept up poor Michi must have been feeling.
Honda and Masaki's relationship is definitely kinda strange, they almost have like a teen boy energy going on with the casual minor violence thrown around (and as I'm sure we all know, most teen boys are in fact possessed by violent ghosts). I kinda get the impression that Honda, for all her warnings and reservations, thinks more of Masaki than Masaki thinks of her. But also at this point it's hard to imagine how the two act alone without a Michi to play tug of war over?

last edited at Oct 24, 2024 8:43PM

Hardly anyone,if any,complained about the translation,and Mangadex is chock full of those crazy people who would scrutinize the Hell out of any series.

I also have no idea who you are referring to with "weird jerks",because for starters,no one really cares whose doing the scanlations when the quality is decent and above so long as they occur,whilst the person who actually finished the series has barely said anything.

Simply put,there's no reason not to finish reading the series now.

Anyone ever tell you you have a bad tendency to state your opinions as if they're universal beliefs or objective facts lol. I made an informed read on the situation after looking, you're welcome to have your own different read, but don't bother trying to argue about it as if something like "Whether or not someone seems like a jerk" has some kind of singular objective truth that can be ironed out in debate

It would definitely make a great live action drama, except how on earth are you gonna cast Yuuta? I could only ever really see this adapted as a movie that cuts the plot down to the core focus of Maya, Michiru, and Nico. That wouldn't be bad at all though, honestly I could use less Hidetaka and Mocchi on reread. I could use MORE Prez, I didn't notice last time I read this that she's Maya's first love and that's really fucking cute, but I doubt she'd make it into a movie version at all unfortunately.

last edited at Oct 24, 2024 6:22AM

I would personally support this manga being tagged as trans. :)

I think there's some younger people on here, some of the newer users, maybe anyhow. The average age probably skews older though, I believe in part because this is a forum and forums are sadly generally a relic of older internet. I don't mean that negatively, only that forums aren't nearly as booming anymore lol

Yeah it definitely does skew older, I've seen some who sounded underage here and there but I myself am also a baby, since I'm only 21. I started browsing this site as a 10 years old who could barely understand English...

Wow, ambitious! lmao

I'd imagine it would have a pull for anything touching it, sucking it entirely to one side. This is mostly to avoid nasty thoughts about that partially through hug ending in gory tragedy.

Edit: by the way, speaking of old references, this setup weirdly sorta reminds me of Quantum Leap. Ema is marooned in the past like the Quantum Leap MC, but can get support and advice remotely from someone she can see and talk to but cannot touch.

last edited at Oct 22, 2024 3:12PM

Nanase's definitely going down a dark path and the only thing that can save her at this point is a break up with Yuni. This is a goal both Yuki and Fuuko are actively pushing for, but Fuuko's much less annoying about it, so that's why she's the best :P

I really dated myself with this, huh

Only if you consider referencing something only popular with people who were children twenty years ago to be dating yourself. >:3

To say that romantic jealousy is not "inherently" romantic is entirely a subjective opinion that, once again, many people just see differently. You're basically trying to argue that Hime's version of romance is fundamentally different than what's "inherent" to romance, and I'd argue that her feelings are different due to intensity rather than fundamentally "wrong" somehow. She's got very normal feelings that most people have, just turned up to 11 by her anxiety.